Herrmann Music in Have Gun Will Travel and - Film Score Rundowns

cue runs 47 seconds described as: “Dark, emotional but subdued orchestral background;
fragmentary; based on Have Gun theme; good cutting points (beginning to letter B on
score).” An annotation on the sheet states “contract July, 1957” for the Garriguenc name,
whereas under Herrmann’s name, the annotation by hand states, “contract Jan 18, 1957.”
Incidentally, to a lesser extent, it should be noted that Lucien Moraweck was also
commissioned to write adapted music as well. For instance, cue # 1038 is titled “Buildup
# 1 (HGWT)” that lasts 2:35, described as “Turgid, heavy motion builds to surges at 1:27
and 1:57; to tag.” The annotation under Moraweck’s name is: July, 1957.” In my opinion,
however, Garriguenc’s music is far more impressive than Moraweck’s, and the objective
proof seems to be that the music editor quoted his cues far more than Moraweck’s cues.
By the way, I will indeed delineate later in this paper locations of Herrmann
music in the half-hour Gunsmoke series that are available (or were available) in dvd
format thru Columbia House subscription. Hopefully, as in the HGWT series, the seasons
will be released “normally” for general public purchase. In fact, just recently the
Gunsmoke: 50th Anniversary editions (two volumes) were released. I will discuss music
by Herrmann in a few of these episodes available. Also I will briefly discuss the Perry
Mason episodes with Herrmann music quotations, but since no general release of dvds of
this show are released yet (except the old subscription dvds), I will not focus on the show
very much. The same applies to the Rawhide episodes since (so far) no general release of
this series on dvd have been made.
Moreover I can only discuss the first three seasons of Have Gun Will Travel since
so far (as I write this paper) the 4 th season set of dvds have not yet been released. Besides,
the overwhelming bulk of Herrmann music quotations will be found in the First and
Second seasons. By the Third season, many episodes had original scores by various
composers (Garriguenc, Fred Steiner, Murray, Hatch, etc.). I will, however, briefly
discuss some of those original scores.
One final note on my presentation: While I purchased Seasons 2 & 3 in the
general release format, I did not purchase Season One. Reason: I had already purchased
the subscription dvds a few years earlier (for about $25 a dvd for about six episodes
each). I had much earlier also purchased the HGWT vhs videos (the entire collection).
The timing alignments in even the vhs format appear to be exactly the same as the dvds,
so I have confidence that the precise timings given for Season One will be exactly the
same as the general release dvds. However, there were mistakes in labeling of the dvds.
The “Gunshy” episode (March 29, 1958) is indicated on the disc but in actual fact the
episode offered is “Death of a Gunfighter” (3-14-59), and that episode is repeated in the
Season Two dvd set. So “Gunshy” is not in my Season One subscription set (although it
was included in the vhs-video series), and I presume not in the general release dvd set. In
the general release Season Two set, the episode titled “Treasure Trail” is not actually that
episode but episode # 60 titled “Hunt The Man Down” (2-7-59). In the next disc, the
episode titled “Hunt The Man Down” is actually “Treasure Trail.” Similar mistakes were
made in the old vhs formats (that unfortunately offered random episodes from different
seasons.
Important: The following timing locations necessitate that you pick the individual
episodes on the dvd. Do not remote click “Play All” because then the chapter numbers
will be different. Instead click “Episode Selection.”
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